SURGING JAYS BRINGING BACK MEMORIES OF WILD 2015 RACE
Excitement rising with team's dominant performance in return to Rogers Centre
Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo has vivid memories of a September trip to Toronto in 2015, a time when baseball was on fire in the city.
The third base coach for the Tampa Bay Rays at the time, Montoyo watched with awe as the Jays swept the Rays in three games, each played before a boisterous, bonkers crowd of 47,000plus at the Rogers Centre. It's something he's never forgotten.
Montoyo, who has been emotional in describing the team's return to the city over the past couple of weeks, often has referenced that moment as an eye-opener to how much excitement the team can generate. And now he's hoping to live it again. So is it 2015 all over again? While there's a rush to make the comparison, we're not ready to go there just yet. That said, however, the post-trade deadline surge the Jays have experienced over the past two weeks is thick with parallels to the team that captivated a nation with its run to the post-season and a division title six years ago.
Should the Jays build off of the success of that recent homestand through a road trip that includes stops in Anaheim, Seattle and Washington, D.C., they'll return home with links to 2015 that much stronger.
Not that they aren't there already.
When then- GM Alex Anthopoulos went all in to load up at the 2015 deadline, he had more evidence to go on than the team's 53-51 record. At the time, the Jays were underachieving in the standings based on the fact that they were plus-104 in run differential.
Sound familiar?
The 2021 Jays were a similarly middling 52-48 at the deadline but a plus-99 in run differential, no doubt a factor in the aggression shown by the baseball operations department, under the leadership of general manager Ross Atkins.
Both incarnations of the Jays responded to the moves as if shot out of a cannon, with the 2015 version going 10-1 in its first 11 games after the deadline, and as we've just seen, the present-day outfit has sprinted out to a 9-2 start.
Helped by a return to the Rogers Centre, the Jays streaked through the 11-game homecoming stretch against the Royals, Indians and Red Sox and now head back on the road sporting a 60-50 record.
The Jays have won 10 of their past 12 and 16 out of 24 and are sitting at 10 games above .500 for the first time since the end of the 2016 season.
After playing 18 games in 17 days — and surging to a 12-6 mark through that grind — the Jays enjoyed an off-day in Southern California on Monday before yet another scheduled doubleheader against the Angels on Tuesday.
The Jays aren't there yet, of course, despite the rush from the previous 10 days. There are still some concerns about the bullpen, though there has been some stability there in recent days, and as hot as the Jays have been, the Yankees and Rays have sizzled as well.
And there's more to do. The 2015 team didn't just ride the hot start and cruise. From Aug. 2-13, they laid down an 11-game winning streak and later in the month went on a 10-2 run. By the end of it, manager John Gibbons' team had won its first AL East title since 1993 with a 93-69 record.
But with one of the easier schedules remaining, opportunity is in front of George Springer, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and the rest of the entertaining Blue Jays. And don't discount the potential influence of a true home crowd feel, where the 14,000-plus have replicated the feel of 40,000-plus for a group of Jays who haven't experienced the sensation for two years.
It's easy to be skeptical when players sing the praises of their fans (what else are they going to say?) but the appreciation seems genuine.
Don't take our word for it, though. We defer to Bichette. In a passionately written piece for the Players' Tribune, the young shortstop spoke of watching the 2015 Jose Bautista bat flip game and the lasting impression it had on him.
An undrafted high school player at the time, Bichette vividly recalled the bedlam after Bautista's historic blast against the Texas Rangers to help send the Jays to an ALDS win.
“I remember, even a few months after, how I'd be chilly or whatever, and then suddenly I'd think to myself, `I gotta go watch that on YouTube again.' The roar of those fans, man. It never got old.
“I'm ready to be part of something like that. Our whole team is.”
In all likelihood, the Jays will have to go 32-20 (or better) the rest of the way, and that prospect is far from guaranteed. But over the past 11 games, anyway, Montoyo's team not only put itself into position to do so, but set up the prospect of a September full of excitement for games played at the downtown Toronto stadium.
SPRINGER HONOURED
For the second consecutive week, the Blue Jays' sizzling leadoff hitter, George Springer, has been named the American League player of the week.
Springer capped an impressive stretch with a three-game homer in the eighth inning to trigger a big 9-8 comeback win over the Red Sox on Sunday, but that was just the capper.
For the week, Springer hit .364, going 12-for-33 at the plate, with nine runs scored, three doubles, three homers and 11 RBIs in eight games.
Springer, who was twice named AL player of the week with the Astros, hit leadoff home runs in wins over Cleveland last Tuesday and Wednesday. rlongley@postmedia.com